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1、-选修八课文-第 7 页Unit 1 CALIFORNIA多样性的土地California is the third largest state in the USA but has the largest population. It also has the distinction of being the most multicultural state in the USA, having attracted people from all over the world. The customs and languages of the immigrants live on in th
2、eir new home. This diversity of culture is not surprising when you know the history of California.NATIVE AMERCANSExactly when the first people arrived in what we now know as California, no one really knows. However, it is likely that Native Americans were living in California at least fifteen thousa
3、nd years ago. Scientists believe that these settlers crossed the Bering Strait in the Arctic to America by means of a land bridge which existed in prehistoric times. In the 16th century, after the arrival of the Europeans, the native people suffered greatly. Thousands were killed or forced into slav
4、ery. In addition, many died from the diseases brought by the Europeans. However, some survived these terrible times, and today there are more Native Americans living in California than in any other state.THE SPANISHIn the 18th century California was ruled by Spain. Spanish soldiers first arrived in
5、South America in the early 16th century, when they fought against the native people and took their land. Two centuries later, the Spanish had settled in most parts of South America and along the northwest coast of what we now call the United States. Of the first Spanish to go to California, the majo
6、rity were religious men, whose ministry was to teach the Catholic religion to the natives. In 1821, the people of Mexico gained their independence from Spain. California then became part of Mexico. In 1846 the United States declared war on Mexico, and after the war won by the USA, Mexico had to give
7、 California to the USA. However, there is still a strong Spanish influence in the state. That is why today over 40 of Californians speak Spanish as a first or second language.RUSSIANSIn the early 1800s, Russian hunters, who had originally gone to Alaska, began settling in California. Today there are
8、 about 25,000 Russian-Americans living in and around San Francisco.GOLD MINERSIn 1848, not long after the American-Mexican war, gold was discovered in California. The dream of becoming rich quickly attracted people from all over the world. The nearest, and therefore the first to arrive, were South A
9、mericans and people from the United States. Then adventurers from Europe and Asia soon followed. In fact, few achieved their dream of becoming rich. Some died or returned home, but most remained in California to make a life for themselves despite great hardship. They settled in the new towns or on f
10、arms. By the time California elected to become the thirty-first federal state of the USA in 1850, it was already a multicultural society.LATER A RRIVALSAlthough Chinese immigrants began to arrive during the Gold Rush Period, it was the building ofthe rail network from the west to the east coast that
11、 brought even larger numbers to California in the 1860s. Today, Chinese-Americans live in all parts of California, although a large percentage have chosen to stay in the Chinatowns of Los Angeles and San Francisco.Other immigrants such as Italians, mainly fishermen but also wine makers, arrived in C
12、alifornia in the late 19th century. In 1911 immigrants from Denmark established a town of their own, which today still keeps up their Danish culture. By the 1920s the film industry was well established in Hollywood, California. The industry boom attracted Europeans including many Jewish people. Toda
13、y California has the second largest Jewish population in the United States.Japanese farmers began arriving in California at the beginning of the 20th century, and since the 1980s a lot more have settled there. People from Africa have been living in California since the 1800s, when they moved north f
14、rom Mexico. However, even more arrived between 1942 and 1945 to work in the ship and aircraft industries.MOST RECENT ARRIVALSIn more recent decades, California has become home to more people from Asia, including Koreans, Cambodians, Vietnamese and Laotians. Since its beginning in the 1970s, the comp
15、uter industry has attracted Indians and Pakistanis to California.THE FUTUREPeople from different parts of the world, attracted by the climate and the lifestyle, still immigrate to California. It is believed that before long the mix of nationalities will be so great that there will be no distinct maj
16、or racial or cultural groups, but simply a mixture of many races and cultures.Unit 2 CLONING: WHERE IS IT LEADING US? Cloning has always been with us and is here to stay. It is a way of making an exact copy of another animal or plant. It happens in plants when gardeners take cuttings from growing pl
17、ants to make new ones. It also happens in animals when twins identical in sex and appearance are produced from the same original egg. The fact is that these are both examples of natural clones.Cloning has two major uses. Firstly, gardeners use it all the time to produce commercial quantities of plan
18、ts. Secondly, it is valuable for research on new plant species and for medical research on animals. Cloning plants is straightforward while cloning animals is very complicated. It is a difficult task to undertake. Many attempts to clone mammals failed. But at last the determination and patience of t
19、he scientists paid off in 1996 with a breakthrough - the cloning of Dolly the sheep. The procedure works like this :On the one hand, the whole scientific world followed the progress of the first successful clone, Dolly the sheep. The fact that she seemed to develop normally was very encouraging. The
20、n came the disturbing news that Dolly had become seriously ill. Cloning scientists were cast down to find that Dollys illnesses were more appropriate to a much older animal. Altogether Dolly lived six and a half years, half the length of the life of the original sheep. Sadly the same arbitrary fate
21、affected other species, such as cloned mice. The questions that concerned all scientists were: Would this be a major difficulty for all cloned animals? Would it happen forever? Could it be solved if corrections were made in their research procedure?On the other hand, Dollys appearance raised a storm
22、 of objections and had a great impact on the media and public imagination. It became controversial. It suddenly opened everybodys eyes to the possibility of using cloning to cure serious illnesses and even to produce human beings.Although at present human egg cells and embryos needed for cloning res
23、earch are difficult to obtain, newspapers wrote of evil leaders hoping to clone themselves to attain their ambitions. Religious leaders also raised moral questions. Governments became nervous and more conservative. Some began to reform their legal systems and forbade research into human cloning, but
24、 other countries like China and the UK, continued to accumulate evidence of the abundant medical aid that cloning could provide. However, scientists still wonder whether cloning will help or harm us and where it is leading us.Unit 3 When I called up my mother in the countryside on the telephone she
25、was very upset. There are some snakes in our courtyard, she told me. Snakes come near the house now and then, and they seem to have made their home here, not far from the walnut tree. Can you get rid of them please? I felt very proud. Here was a chance for .me to distinguish myself by inventing some
26、thing merciful that would catch snakes but not harm them. I knew my parents would not like me to hurt these living creatures!The first thing I did was to see if there were any products that might help me, but there only seemed to be powders designed to kill snakes. A new approach was clearly needed.
27、 I set about researching the habits of snakes to find the easiest way to trap them. Luckily these reptiles are small and that made the solution easier.Prepared with some research findings, I decided on three possible approaches: firstly, removing their habitat; secondly, attracting them into a trap
28、using male or female perfume or food; and thirdly cooling them so that they would become sleepy and could be easily caught. I decided to use the last one. I bought an ice-cream maker which was made of stainless steel. Between the outside and the inside walls of the bowl there is some jelly, which fr
29、eezes when cooled. I put the bowl into the fridge and waited for 24 hours. At the same time I prepared some ice-cubes.The next morning I got up early before the sun was hot. I placed the frozen bowl over the snakes habitat and the ice-cubes on top of the bowl to keep it cool. Finally I covered the w
30、hole thing with a large bucket. Then I waited. After two hours I removed the bucket and the bowl. The snakes were less active but they were still too fast for me. They abruptly disappeared into a convenient hole in the wall. So I had to adjust my plan.For the second attempt I froze the bowl and the
31、ice-cubes again but placed them over the snakes habitat in the evening, as the temperature was starting to cool. Then as before, I covered the bowl with the bucket and left everything overnight. Early the next morning I returned to see the result. This time with great caution I bent down to examine
32、the snakes and I found them very sleepy. But once picked up, they tried to bite me. As they were poisonous snakes, I clearly needed to improve my design again.My third attempt repeated the second procedure. The next morning I carried in my hand a small net used for catching fish. This was in the exp
33、ectation that the snakes would bite again. But monitored carefully, the snakes proved to be no trouble and all went according to plan. I collected the passive snakes and the next day we merrily released them all back into the wild.Pressed by my friends and relations, I decided to seize the opportuni
34、ty to get recognition for my successful idea by sending my invention to the patent office. Only after you have had that recognition can you say that you are truly an inventor. The criteria are so strict that it is difficult to get new ideas accepted unless they are truly novel. In addition, no inven
35、tion will get a patent if it is:a discoverya scientific idea or mathematical modelliterature or arta game or a businessa computer programmea new animal or plant varietyNor will you receive a patent until a search has been made to find out that your product really is different from everyone elses. Th
36、ere are a large number of patent examiners, too, whose only job is to examine whether your claim is valid or not. If it passes all the tests, your application for a patent will be published 18 months from the date you apply. So I have filled in the form and filed my patent application with the Paten
37、t Office. Now its a matter of waiting and hoping. Youll know if I succeed by the size of my bank balance! Wish me luck!Unit 4(E): a poor flower girl who is ambitious to improve herself(H): an expert in phonetics, convinced that the quality of a persons English decides his/her position in society(CP)
38、: an officer in the army and later a friend of Higgins who sets him a task11 :15 pm in London, England in 1914 outside a theatre. It is pouring with rain and cab whistles are blowing in all directions. A man is hiding from the rain listening to peoples language and watching their reactions. While wa
39、tching, he makes notes. Nearby a flower girl wearing dark garments and a woollen scarf is also sheltering from the rain. A gentleman (G) passes and hesitates for a moment.E: Come overere, capin, and buy me flowers off a poor girl.G: Im sorry but I havent any change.E: I can givou change, capin.G: (s
40、urprised) For a pound? Im afraid Ive got nothing less.E: (hopefully) Oah! Oh, do buy a flower off me, Captain. Take this for three pence. (holds up some dead flowers)G: (uncomfortably) Now dont be troublesome, theres a good girl. (looks in his wallet and sounds more friendly) But, wait, heres some s
41、mall change. Will that be of any use to you? Its raining heavily now, isnt it? (leaves)E: (disappointed at the outcome, but thinking it is better than nothing) Thank you, sir. (sees a man taking notes and feels worried) Hey! I aint done nothing wrong by speaking to that gentleman. Ive a right to sel
42、l flowers, I have. I aint no thief. Im an honest girl I am! (begins to cry)H: (kindly) There! There! Whos hurting you, you silly girl? What do you take me for? (gives her a handkerchief)E: I thought maybe you was a policeman in disguise.H: Do I look like a policeman?E: (still worried) Then why did o
43、u take down my words for? How do I know whether ou took me down right? ou just show me what ouve wrote about me!H: Here you are. (hands over the paper covered in writing)E: Whats that? That aint proper writing. I cant read that. (pushes it back at him)H: I can. (reads imitating Eliza) Come over ere,
44、 capin, and buy me flowers off a poor girl. (in his own voice) There you are and you were bornin Lisson Grove if Im not mistaken.E: (looking confused) What if I was? Whats it to you?CP: (has been watching the girl and now speaks to Higgins) Thats quite brilliant! How did you do that, may I ask?H: Si
45、mply phonetics studied and classified from peoples own speech. Thats my profession and also my hobby. You can place a man by just a few remarks. I can place any spoken conversation within six miles, and even within two streets in London sometimes.CP: Let me congratulate you! But is there an income t
46、o be made in that?H: Yes, indeed. Quite a good one. This is the age of the newly rich. People begin their working life in a poor neighbourhood of London with 80 pounds a year and end in a rich one with 100 thousand. But they betray themselves every time they open their mouths. Now once taught by me,
47、 shed become an upper class lady .CP: Is that so? Extraordinary!H: (rudely) Look at this girl with her terrible English: the English that will condemn her to the gutter to the end of her days. But, sir, (proudly) once educated to speak properly, that girl could pass herself off in three months as a
48、duchess at an ambassadors garden party. Perhaps I could even find her a place as a ladys maid or a shop assistant, which requires better English.E: Whats that you say? A shop assistant? Now thats sommat I want, that is!H: (ignores her) Can you believe that?CP: Of course! I study many Indian dialects
49、 myself and .H: Do you indeed? Do you know Colonel Pickering?CP: Indeed I do, for that is me. Who are you?H: Im Henry Higgins and I was going to India to meet you.CP: And I came to England to make your acquaintance!E: What about me? Howll you help me?H: Oh, take that. (carelessly throws a handful of m